What you'll accomplish
By the end of this guide, you'll use Perplexity AI to research emerging threats, threat actor groups, and attack campaigns in real time — with cited sources — instead of spending 30-45 minutes reading through multiple threat intel sites. You'll get up-to-date, sourced summaries that you can act on immediately.
What you'll need
- A free Perplexity account at perplexity.ai (free tier is sufficient)
- A list of topics you routinely research (threat actors, CVEs, malware families, attack campaigns)
- Time needed: 15 minutes to get set up; 5-10 minutes per research task thereafter
- Cost: Free (paid plan at $20/mo adds more daily queries and file uploads)
How-To Guide: Real-Time Threat Intelligence Research with Perplexity
Step 1: Create your Perplexity account
Go to perplexity.ai and sign up with your email or Google account. The free tier gives you sufficient daily queries for threat research. The key advantage over ChatGPT: Perplexity searches the live web and cites its sources — you can verify every claim.
What you should see: The Perplexity homepage with a search/chat bar in the center.